I think we all know the old joke, that when I assume something, I make an ass out of you and me. I’m not so sure of that, but I do know that assumptions can be hazardous, especially in our attempts to stay sober. They can lead to disillusionment’s and disappointment, when what we assume does not meet our expectations.
For instance, yesterday the subject was the Promise that fear of economic insecurity will leave us. Two things became apparent. One was that the beginning of AA was right during one of the worst depressions this country and the world has known. Yet the members of AA back then were able to stay sober through that event and the Second World War. What was missing was how AA members get these Promises. No one mentioned the logical progression of working these steps, in particular the 9th Step in which this event actually occurs.
A few weeks back, a young woman revealed her assumptions. We have a huge display on the wall of the 12 Steps. She pointed to that sign and said that, when she first came to this program that she had tried to work the Steps off the wall. She said she had never studied the BB and the instructions contained within and she didn’t have a sponsor. The result was that she had drank again. She had been whistling in the dark.
I remember, back in my early days in AA, that the reading of the Promises were encouraged. It gave us a goal toward which we could work. The understanding was there from our sponsors that these could only be attained if we were willing to undertake the process of applying these steps to our lives.
I know one thing from my own experiences in this program: That you can’t get here from there, if you are not willing to work these steps in the order in which they are written. The instructions in the BB are simple. The only barrier is our complicated alcoholic minds, which constantly spend more time trying to read between the lines what isn’t there. Like one old timer used to say, “read the black stuff and not the white stuff”.
Anyway, I was thinking about this today, as I was getting ready to go to a meeting. I was thinking how grateful I am for all those old timers, who introduced me to this program and were willing to show me the way into sobriety and sober living. It was these men, who opened the door and my eyes to my higher power, which led me to the God of my understanding.